The New Jedi Order, X-wing: Green Squadron
by Netz Ausg
Summary: Netz Ausg leads Green Squadron in defences of doomed worlds whilst the Yuuzhan Vong invade NR territory. Also, Captain Grahdon Nuul brings his crack team of foot-soldiers into the fray...


25 years after the destruction of the first Death Star, the Yuuzhan Vong, a race that dedicates it's existence to the removal of all other species and destruction of any and all technology, have attacked various worlds in their campaign to crush yet another galaxy. This galaxy though, is putting up a defence.  
  
The Yuuzhan Vong began their campaign by destroying a small planet by sending its moon plummeting to the surface. Killing Han Solo's friend and companion Chewbacca in the process. The unstoppable forces then moved on to wreak havoc on the New Republic's planets, taking over such places as Ord Mantell and Obroa-skai. They perform atrocities like the biological virus sent down to the peaceful jungle planet Ithor, killing all of the pacifistic Ithorians unable to evacuate and their precious Mother Jungle. Now they move to take the outer rim planet of Gyndine, can the people of this small planet be rescued, and can the small New Republic fleet that is deployed to defend the planet bide Ambassador Leia Oragana Solo enough time to remove the population from the doomed world?  
  
May the force be with you...  
  
  
X-wing: Green Squadron  
  
  
Chapter One  
  
  
Flitting around in the small New Republic fleet, Netz Ausg engaged his weapons and shields, preparing for the battle that would soon ensue. Only moments before, the Yuuzhan Vong fleet had dropped in-system and began dumping their corral skipper, bio-engineered fighters into space. Being the leader of Green Squadron, and subsequently, the commander of all fighters belonging to the Gyndine defence force, it was up to Netz to ensure the safe arrival and departure of the evacuation shuttles.  
  
Opening a channel to Green Squadron, Netz said, "Lock S-foils to attack positions and form up in your flights. Two flight take point. Three flight flank him on the left, and One flight form up on me." Feeling the need for something else Netz Ausg added, "Good luck team, try to keep yourselves alive for me."  
  
Looking through his transparisteel cockpit he saw the other X-wing squadrons lock their stabilisers into attack position and engage their sub-light engines. Streaking forward towards the enemy, six squadrons of fighters, ranging from X-wings to the new E-wings started the inevitable challenge to the collective mind of the coral skipper fighters.  
  
Flicking a switch to change the comm frequency, Netz address the whole fighter screen. "To all pilots of Gyndine's defence force, this is Commander Ausg. If we are to win this battle, then we need the support of our fellows, and the compassion of those who would save an entire world. I wish you all good luck, and may the force be with you, always..." That was a nice touch he thought to himself.  
  
Receiving various reports of range to enemy, and numbers, Netz shut down his comm for a moment. Breathing deeply and closing his eyes, he revelled in the last moments of peace. With eyes still shut, he reached across for the comm, and switched it on.  
  
"...squadron under fire. They came from behind Lead..." The burst of speech was cut out in a burst of static, signifying the pilots death.  
  
Reaching forward, Netz grabbed hold of the flight yoke and swooped around and back toward where the pilots of Omega squadron had been ambushed. "Keep on me One flight, Two flight dump some torps into the enemy attacking Omega, then leave with the group for the main body of them." Complying with his orders four blue streaks shot out from Two flight's fighters, and detonated against the enemy skippers. The explosions ripped the four enemy coral skippers apart, send chunks of organic coral flying, and hitting their own fighters. Two other enemies were destroyed by debris from the torpedoes destruction.  
  
Plunging into the ranks of organic ships, Green One and three of his squadron began to fire at the marauding Yuuzhan Vong. Spraying red bolts of plasma across space, Netz strafed the thick hide of one enemy, digging deep furrows into it's corral hull, and clipping chunks off. Sweeping around for another run, his Artoo unit Wampa whistled a warning, and crimson text showed that the shields power was rapidly depleting.  
  
"Watch out, they've started on my shields." Flicking his shields off he kicked the small snub-fighter around in a loop, and fired blood red lasers into the rear of his target. The Coral Skipper exploded in an orange mess of liquid and chunks of super-heated coral as the lasers bored into it's organic propulsion creature.  
  
Re-activating his shields Netz was near deafened by a short scream from Green Four as his engines detonated and ripped his ship apart. As a wave of guilt and grief swept it's way through him, he was overwhelmed with relief when he saw that Four had managed to eject at the last moment. Going for his comm to call for help for the ejected pilot, Netz was horrified to see an enemy fighter bear down on the helpless man floating in space. Mobilising his fighter to defend the downed pilot, he realised he was too late. The enemy skipper launched a ball of liquid rock towards the doomed man. The searing rock melted through his extra-vehicular field and through the pilot himself. Swearing and screaming, Ausg brought the nose of his fighter around and obliterated the enemy fighter with a blast of four laser cannons focused on the cockpit.  
  
Netz had no time to mourn the loss of his fellow pilot and instead, ploughed into the remaining skippers. "One flight, break up. Two, go on Three's wing." As Atin Twolter's X-wing broke off from Netz's and joined up with his new wingman a Coral Skipper fell victim to Netz's laser cannons, and exploded in a vast array of orange and red.  
  
Two more, he thought. The others have got the last three under fire, so these two are mine. As he thought it he dropped behind the rear most skipper and opened fire. The second that the plasma burst from the tips of his cannons, the skipper roared upwards and its dovin basal, the creature that propelled it and acted as a makeshift shield, released a pulse of gravitational energy that stripped his shields of more power. Kicking the nose of the fighter into a dive Netz manoeuvred out of harms way, straight into the path of the other coral skipper. Two balls of molten rock exploded from the Yuuzhan Vong vessel and splattered across the shields of the X-wing.  
  
"Lead!" cried Green Three as yet more of the blobs of liquid were shot at the stricken vessel.  
  
The first Skipper returned to a position above the commander's X-wing and began stripping it's shields of any and all power, whilst the other pelted it in strafing runs. Desperately looking around, Netz struggled with the controls, trying for a way to escape the gravity created by the enemy's Dovin Basal.  
  
Finally the straining shields gave way, and three balls of super-heated magma struck the broken and battered ship...  
  
* * *  
  
"Captain, Delta seven is out of it." Came the voice of one of the ground personnel.  
  
Grahdon Nuul, Captain of the Seventh division light infantry to the New Republic, swept his eyes across the landscape and saw the burning hulk of the destroyed All Terrain Scout Transport Delta Seven. That's five we've lost, he thought. "Get the AT-STs to fall back to higher ground, fire down on them," Grahdon shouted into his comm-link.  
  
Troops at the front of the formation of Heavy Artillery soldiers began to scatter and orange flames could be seen erupting all over the place. The rear units could hear horrific screams and men began withdrawing their blaster pistols and rifles, even setting timers for thermal detonators. As the men at the front lines began to fall victim to the searing flames huge, almost blimp like creatures spouting a napalm like substance at the defence forces were visible.  
  
"Fall back men, fall back." Cried Grahdon as the living flame-throwers neared, and the units surrounding began to slowly retreat. "Fire!" he screamed. All around him blaster carbines and portable mounted laser cannons erupted with crimson and blue bolts of plasma energy, burning furrows in the ground and speeding toward the bulbous flame eaters. The burning laser bolts struck the hide of one of the creatures, but all that did was re-direct the creatures flame toward the source of the gunman.  
  
"Someone grenade the bastard!" a foot soldier shouted from somewhere to his right, and three thermal detonators flew through the air to the rounded monsters. Two of the three fell at the feet of the Yuuzhan Vong created flame-throwers and the third was caught in the flame spraying from its overly large mouth. It exploded in a brilliant flash of light sound and debris. Pieces of fragmented metal shot out in a vast sphere, burying themselves in the ground or slicing into the New Republic forces. Countless men near the radius of the explosion screamed as they fell to the ground amongst other fallen comrades. The remaining two grenades ticked away as their timers counted down, and two loud beeps could be heard, punctuated by the deafening explosions that were inevitable. The dual explosion knocked most of the soldiers to their knees with the force of the warm air being sent out from the site and the non-sentient flame-thrower's belly was ripped open by shards of debris from the grenades themselves and the pure strength of the double grenades.  
  
Hoots and cheers rose up among the men of the New Republic and blaster bolt were fired up into the air in celebration as a viscous orange and red liquid oozed out of the shredded flamer now lying prone on the up-turned earth, searing the surviving grass and vegetation. But the ground troops' jubilation was short lived as hundred of reptile like Yuuzhan Vong drones were made visible over the horizon.  
  
Thinking quickly the Captain re-placed the depleted battery pack in his blaster carbine with a fresh one before shouting, "Advance men!" The ranks of soldiers advanced forward, re-loading their weapons and withdrawing thermal detonators from their bulky backpacks to slot into their belts.  
  
The ground assault had been taken to a new level, and Grahdon's troops advanced to the enemy...  
  
* * *  
  
The blobs of hot rock melted their way through the nose and wing of the immobile X-wing fighter, and Netz struggled with the controls in the cockpit. Pulling hard on the lever to cold start his snub-fighter for the twentieth time, the engine finally gave a stuttering burst of noise, and the main thrust control panel lit up brightly, as if with a second wind. Punching several buttons and flicking the switch on speed control, the fighter kicked forwards and out of the fire of the two Yuuzhan Vong fighters. Dropping in line with him and pursuing, the first fighter fired another blast at Netz. The ball of molten liquid splattered over the right stabiliser foil and weakened it further from the previous attack.  
  
Kicking viciously at the rudder pedal Netz sent the fighter into a sharp turn, only to tear his own wing away from the main body of the fighter. "Need back up now Green squadron, I've lost my shields and my upper right S-foil. I repeat, assist needed, now!" he screamed into the comm unit and wrestled with the controls to recover from the spin the loss of the wing had left him in.  
  
Swooping down the second asteroid shaped fighter released several more rounds of its strange weapons from its volcano like launcher in order to finish it's stricken target.  
  
Desperately casting his eyes around the small cockpit Netz slapped his hand onto the thrust control again, and sent all weapons power to the engines. With the extra burst of throttle the wounded X-wing blasted forward, still in its uncontrollable spin. Yanking hard on the yoke, the fighter began to right itself and Netz re-routed the divided power back to his laser cannons.  
  
Bringing the blackened, and still bubbling from the skipper's projectile, nose of the fighter back around, he dived straight toward the larger of the two misshapen coral skippers. As the first ship veered left, he kept on it's tail, firing blasts of laser fire after it. Hooting in celebration as three bolts of plasma bore down on the skipper with deadly precision, his joy was cut out when the dovin basal's field sucked the laser bolts into a tiny void.  
  
"Sithspit!" Netz toggled the weapons control from laser to proton torpedo, before adjusting the parameters for the warheads.  
  
"Commander, are you ok?" came the voice of Green Three, "We can't help you out right now, we've got our own mess to deal with."  
  
Glancing to port Netz saw that the remainder of One flight were indeed having their own share of difficulty with the Yuuzhan Vong coral skippers. "Roger that Three. Keep your nose clean till I can rejoin the fray." Clicking off the transmission Netz refocused on the melee.  
  
Kicking on the lateral control pedal and pushing forward on the yoke, he sent the fighter into a dive, and brought it back up under an enemy skipper. Edging the targeting recticle over the lump of corral ahead of him, he watched it flicker green for a moment, before it turned a solid blood red. Squeezing the trigger of his flight yoke, two torpedoes shot out from either side of the X-wings body and sped after the coral skipper.  
  
Somehow sensing the two projectiles hurtling after it, the enemy pilot span the fighter up and around, then back down in a snap roll. Spinning and rolling through a variety of complex manoeuvres the Yuuzhan Vong pilot desperately tried to shake the two missiles from it's rear, but the effort was futile, and the twin torpedoes detonated in a brilliant display of roiling flame. The missiles in fact detonated several metres away from the coral skipper, thus defeating the enemy's dovin basal by making the explosives do damage from outside their effective range. The explosions tore open half of the coral skipper, disintegrating the cockpit and dovin basal, whilst the remaining chunk drifted out into deeper space, probably only to be grabbed by Gyndine's gravity.  
  
Switching weapons back to lasers with the flick of a switch, Netz swooped around and watched the remaining skipper turn around and target the snub-fighter. As four blobs of brilliantly hot rock flew past his rear, splattering his hull slightly but doing no real harm, Netz drove the fighter down towards the planet that he was protecting. The X-wing reached the upper reaches of its atmosphere, making it skip slightly as it met resistance from the incredibly thin layers of gas. Following Netz determinedly, the corral skipper also slipped into the top layers of the atmosphere, bouncing when it met opposing force.  
  
A smile crept across Netz's face as he realised that he could win the skirmish.  
  
Pulling up, the fighter flew in upwards, before coming around in a loop and diving straight towards the planet surface. Correcting his flight path the second that the body of the fighter met resistance, and levelling his entry into the atmosphere, he watched as the enemy craft tried to mimic the manoeuvre. The oddly shaped skipper dove straight down into the thin air, and was instantly buffered around. An orange tail formed around the speeding object as it gained velocity and fell toward the planet.  
  
The heat created from the air friction began to attack the organic material of the skipper, and the housing for, and the dovin basal itself, was totally incinerated.  
  
The falling Yuuzhan Vong continued on its downward course, without any controls or propulsion.  
  
Smiling, Netz reported back to his squadron, "I've dealt with my bogey's and am returning to the battle."  
  
His report was answered with multiple shouts of congratulations and welcomes.  
  
Maybe the battle wasn't lost after all...  
  
* * *  
  
Pulling himself back up onto his feet, Captain Grahdon Nuul recovered his blaster and threw himself, at the nearest enemy. Firing with his blaster and bringing his vibroblade to bear, he attacked the reptilian foot soldier. Digging the blade into a smouldering blaster burn caused only moments before, he hacked through the living body armour. Toppling backwards, the enemy's amphistaff, a living serpent like creature that could stiffen at the command of the Yuuzhan Vong, was flung away. Firing once into the cranium of the enemy, and once again at the amphistaff desperately trying to sliver in the opposite direction of the New Republic soldier.  
  
Looking around, he did a quick estimation of numbers and realised that the enemy had the upper hand. Not willing to lose any more of his men, he shouted, "Fall back!"  
  
A brilliant boom over head caught his attention, and he cast his gaze upwards just in time to witness one of the evacuation shuttles detonate under coral skipper fire. As the orange fire burst outwards, fragments of hull flew out, and rained down on the combatants below.  
  
"Get back to the drop ship, we can't do any good down here," said a voice from the comm-link at his waist.  
  
Turning and locating the vessel, he fired behind him four times before running to a better position. Holstering his blaster pistol, he withdrew a larger rifle from it's slot on his backpack. Crouching behind a partly destroyed land speeder, he cocked the barrel on his arm and aimed.  
  
"Hurry and get back into the ship!" he cried at the men still fighting against the Yuuzhan Vong. Grimacing as another of the New Republics seventh division of light infantry was sliced with a shorter version of the amphistaff. More cries rang out from dying Republic men, and Grahdon fired at any enemy trying to kill his comrades.  
  
Squeezing the firing stud, a dart of red energy burnt a clean hole through the head of one lizard man, and another bolt knocked two off of their feet. Sniping off any opportunistic enemy, he commanded the retreat for the third time, this time with a sharp and forceful tone.  
  
Heeding his order, the remaining fighters fired several warning shots into the midst of the opposition, before slowly walking backwards to the open door to the ship.  
  
As the final foot soldiers sprinted up the landing ramp, he hurled three thermal detonators into the growing crowd of Yuuzhan Vong.  
  
The Captain was inside the vessel before the grenades had time to detonate.  
  
* * *  
  
"The refugee ships are preparing to jump to hyperspace Lead," said Twolter down the comm.  
  
"Acknowledged Two," Netz replied before switching the frequency to talk to all of the fighters in system. "Sort your navicomp co-ordinates, we are going to jump system right after the main fleet does."  
  
Six sets of clicks confirmed that each squad leader under-stood.  
  
Turning off the comm and swinging the nose of his fighter in the direction of the last SELCORE evacuation ship. The large freighter accelerated away from Gyndine, then disappeared in a flash of blue light.  
  
Re-activating the comm, he said, "Jump in, five, four, three, two- " He was cut out as his ship disappeared into hyperspace.  



End file.
